


Brothers and Sisters

by bitogoth



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Gen, Jane feels, POV Jane Foster
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-17
Updated: 2014-12-17
Packaged: 2018-03-01 22:34:34
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2790146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bitogoth/pseuds/bitogoth
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jane was an only child. </p><p>Brothers and sisters were things that happened to her friends, and from what Jane could see she really wasn't missing much. Jane had a few cousins around her age growing up and imagined that's what siblings were like, only you saw them every day whether you wanted to or not. She sometimes wondered what it would be like to have a brother or sister, but it wasn't anything she ever really wanted.</p><p>As is usually the case, siblings happen whether you want them or not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Brothers and Sisters

Jane started to understand what she'd been missing when Darcy came into her life.

Despite the difference in their ages they quickly became friends, but Jane had never lived with a friend for months at a time. (She'd had roommates but none were really _friends_. She imagined that her brief dorm experience was similar to what sharing a room with a sister was like and she hadn't liked it at all; she moved into a tiny studio as soon as she could scrape together the funds and never regretted it.)

Darcy could be exasperating, irritating, infuriating, and a few other words with _-ing_ at the end. At the same time, she unquestionably became Jane's best friend, confidant, and cheerleader and long after the internship was over Darcy stayed on. Moving to the Tower meant they could be close without being huddled in Jane's camper van and their relationship improved even further (especially with Darcy now having an actual income while she finished her degree).

Jane still felt responsible for her, and Darcy still made sure that Jane ate regularly and slept in an actual bed occasionally, but they were on more even footing now. It was Darcy who kept Jane grounded as the world went crazy around them, and then held Jane as she cried, afraid she'd never see Thor again. The erratic brunette had become closer than any cousin or friend ever had, and Jane was grateful that Tony had offered Darcy a place, and that Darcy wanted to stay.

Darcy was what Jane imagined a sister _should_ be.

***

Jane's growing friendship with Tony was very different.

If Darcy was the younger sister who drove you crazy but you loved to pieces, Tony was the hyperactive brother who was always in your room and messing with your stuff. He was pompous and obnoxious and terribly, terribly brilliant and that had intimidated Jane right up until their first fight, less than an hour into setting up her equipment in the new lab Tony had provided at the Tower. 

Jane had long experience dealing with pushy male scientists who thought they understood her research better than she did and who had firm opinions on everything from her programming skills to her patched-together equipment. She'd quickly learned that the best defense was a fierce offense and it hadn't made her many friends in the science community. Of course, Jane really didn't need condescending assholes hanging around her lab when she had work to do, so if they left her alone then that was just fine.

Tony had picked up a handheld scanner Jane had been refining (if "refining" meant blobs of solder along the seams and being held together with electrical tape since its last upgrade). His offhand, "Is this supposed to be a spectrometer?" had just the right note to set Jane's teeth on edge. She was stressed about the move to New York, some things hadn't been packed properly and she was worried about breakage, it was going to take weeks to get everything working again and she _knew that tone_ and what was going to come next.

The torrent that poured from her mouth had chunks of "we don't all have your family fortune" and "it didn't exist so I had to create it myself" and "if you're going to belittle my work why am I even here" and "women can code and build hardware just as well as men" scattered through it. When Jane finally wound down, red-faced and breathless, she suddenly realized what an incredibly stupid thing she'd done; she'd have to pack everything up again and find another lab and maybe go work for SHIELD after all because _she just told off Tony Stark_.

She was just starting to gasp out an apology when Tony blinked twice and replied, "Well, why didn't you say so?" He proceeded to take the device apart and put it back together before her eyes, even correctly identifying where some of the parts had originally come from. Jane watched doubtfully like a child who didn't trust the magician's trick, but when she was able to turn it on without the annoying flicker that had been contributing to her headaches for the past year a wide smile bloomed across her face. Tony grinned back and that, as they say, is that.

Tony continued to poke around Jane's experiments, but she quickly learned that Tony wasn't judging her with his questions- he really wanted to know. And once he understood he did everything he could to help. He teased her about Thor mercilessly and sniped back-and-forth with Darcy until Jane was yanking her hair out with frustration and drove them both from the lab by throwing things. When Tony learned that Jane's van was parked in the Tower garage he insisted that she move it to his private level, and then rebuilt her aging transmission 'just because'.

And more than anything, Tony could see her vision and wanted her to succeed. Jane knew she was smart; she didn't need anyone to validate her self-worth. But until now the people who had truly believed in and supported her work could be counted on one finger, and to have a certified genius backing her up was a relief and a wonder. Thor knew she was moving in the right direction, but Tony _believed_.

They'd sit up late at night, running tests, drinking coffee that had gone cold hours earlier and imagine how the world would change once humanity could build an Einstein-Rosen bridge of their own. Or Tony would be up to his elbows in the guts of something, wires strewn about, wiping sweat off his face with his shoulder and cursing at her latest "...hack job and why you didn't just ask me in the first place I'll _never_ know..." and Jane would snort and smile fondly and think, _this is what having a brother is like_.

***

It took Jane longer to connect with Bruce.

The odd-couple relationship that Bruce and Tony had going was almost inexplicable from the outside. Tony swam in coffee while Bruce sipped tea. Tony drank too much and Bruce meditated and did yoga. Tony respected intellect over almost all else, and there was no question that Bruce had it, but the fact that the two previously-inveterate loners could work together so well constantly amazed her. When Tony was frenetic, Bruce was calm. Where Tony was over-focused, Bruce could step back and look at the big picture. 

Jane would hear a noise from Bruce's lab at 3 a.m. and slip down the hallway to watch two salt-and-pepper heads bent over their latest experiment, tired banter devolving into giggles of exhaustion. Bruce constantly pushed Tony eat and sleep more, and Tony was more likely to do either if someone pointed out that Bruce needed the same. Bruce often acted as Tony's conscience (mostly ignored, but not always), and had an understanding with JARVIS unique to those who dealt with Tony Stark on a regular basis. Tony gave Bruce a lab and then seemed determined to drag him out of it as often as possible, making sure that Bruce didn't exchange his self-imposed exile for a hermitage.

They argued and bantered and bickered. Like he did with Jane, Tony saw something in Bruce that was obvious to him and anyone who couldn't figure it out could go to hell. That attention made Jane look closer as well, and she started to know Bruce for himself and not just as a balance for Tony.

If Tony was the brother who'd pull your pigtails but turn around and threaten to beat up anyone else who teased you, then Bruce was the brother who listened when you had a fight with your best friend and offered advice (but only if you asked for it). While Tony was always out there, always 'on' and over-the-top, Bruce had a thin shell around him that you had to ease under before you could find someone warmer and more caring than you could ever imagine. Bruce hid his inherent gentleness, but there was a sharp wit there as well and his sly smile was always worth the effort. And while Bruce believed in avoiding unnecessary confrontation, that didn't mean he wouldn't stand up for what was important.

It worked the other way, too.

Jane knew that Bruce was grateful to Tony, same as she was. Tony took in Jane and believed in her science; Tony took in Bruce and believed in his _humanity_. But there was something more, and as she grew to know Bruce better she starting seeing Tony through his eyes as well. She learned to recognize when Tony had his fake face on; Bruce wasn't fooled, but he respected Tony enough to not call him on it. Instead, he did the things he knew would help Tony get past the mask himself. Bruce and Pepper were a team, brought together by their desire for Tony to be happy, and Jane inevitably found herself joining that team, too.

***

No one was sure exactly when the 'Science Bros' became the 'Science Trio'.

Maybe it was the first time Jane was asked to mediate a disagreement between the two, and her opinion opened up a whole new argument.

It might have been the day the three of them tried to re-position the electron scanner and for one long, terrible moment were stuck and no one could move without toppling the rest (they laughed about it later over heating pads and ibuprofin).

There was that week-long marathon where Jane was so close to a breakthrough that they all could feel it, to the point that the rest of the team dragged them out of the lab and threw them in the swimming pool to clean them off before forcing them to eat and sleep for three days.

Somewhere along the way, three brilliant people who each had to prove something to the world found two others with whom they didn't need to prove a thing, and united they could accomplish the impossible.

The best siblings are the ones you choose for yourself.


End file.
